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The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (3/22 – 3/29)

This week in television started off with a look into Ursula and Hook’s past on Once Upon a Time. Also on Sunday, we made it through Election Day along with all the characters on The Good Wife. On Monday, Castle gave us another great Ryan-centric episode, and Tuesday was season finale night for The Mindy Project. Wednesday featured a Nashville concert special and an episode of The Americans that highlighted the complexity of Elizabeth Jennings and the brilliance of the actress who brings her to life. And this entire week was filled with plenty of March Madness fun for basketball fans.

Some weeks, it’s incredibly difficult for me to choose my favorite TV moment of the week. And then some weeks, I know from the minute I watch a particular scene that it’s going to be nearly impossible to beat. This week was an example of the latter. There were a lot of strong moments to pick from, but none made me happier than Hook telling Emma she’s his happy ending on this week’s Once Upon a Time.

Sometimes you just want to feel good when you watch television, and that’s what this moment was all about. It was a moment of deep, almost unbelievable joy for two characters who spent so much of their lives believing that kind of happiness would never be theirs to have. Throughout the episode’s flashbacks, we were reminded that Hook spent three lifetimes in darkness and despair. But in that scene with Emma, he told her in no uncertain terms that she makes him happy enough to believe he’s living out his happy ending just by being with her. And Emma spent so much of her life believing she was never enough to make the people she loved happy just by being herself. But in that moment, she finally had someone look at her and tell her that she’s enough exactly as she is to make someone she loves happy forever.

That scene was powerful on its own merit, but was even more powerful because of who we know these characters to be and how long we know they’ve struggled to find the kind of love shown in that moment. Colin O’Donoghue and Jennifer Morrison did such a fantastic job of conveying how monumental this was for both characters without ever making it feel heavy-handed. It was the first moment of this half-season of Once Upon a Time to make me cry, and it came by those emotions honestly.

1 thought on “The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (3/22 – 3/29)”

Was I the only one thinking, “You were my new dream?” with this scene? (I mean, Hook is kinda Flynn Rider, smolders and all.) It hits me the same way. In other words, both smack me upside the head with the feels.